Hovde Cemetery
Clay County, South Dakota

Hovde Cemetery is located in the northwest quarter of section 9 of Glenwood
Township. It is located southeast of
and adjacent to the intersection of Clay county's 298th Street and Clay
county's 466th Avenue, and, the cemetery is adjacent to Ash Creek, which
passes around the cemetery's southeast corner. Hovde Cemetery is located
approximately five miles west and one mile south of Beresford, South Dakota.

The land for Hovde Cemetery was donated by Sivert Hovde in 1876. The
cemetery's first burial was that of Sivert's daughter, Ellen. Sivert Hovde
moved to town after the death of his third wife and deeded the cemetery's
land to the Nazareth Lutheran Church in Centerville, South Dakota in 1906.
A perpetual care plan was established for the cemetery, and, its first board
members were Clifford Hanson, Joseph Berg, and Glenn Olson. After the
church closed, the cemetery continued to be used by members of the parish.

Hovde Cemetery is very well maintained and is surrounded on all sides by a
fence, with a single gate each on the north and west sides. The main gate
on the cemetery's north side is surrounded by a pair of stone and cement
columns, which list the cemetery's name, and, a pair of flag poles stand
next to the columns. The cemetery contains no buildings. The cemetery's
east and west sides measure an average of 69.4 yards, the north side
measures 63.4 yards, and, the south side measures 47.9 yards. The shorter
measurement of the south side can be attributed to the fact that the fence
curves around the cemetery's southeast corner to avoid the downward slope of
the terrain, although, the cemetery itself is generally flat. The
cemetery's western border is marked by a row of eleven evergreens, while,
its northern border is marked by a row of five evergreens. Otherwise, the
cemetery contains no other trees or shrubs. Most of the land within Hovde
Cemetery contains no graves, and, the graves that do exist are generally
located near the cemetery's southern and eastern sides, as well as a small
cluster of graves located at the cemetery's northwest corner.

I visited the Hovde Cemetery on Jan 23, 2004,
and Sep 26 and 29, 2004. The Sep 26, 2004 visit was halted
prematurely due to gunfire in the area (it was later learned that hunters
were test firing their rifles into the hills southeast of the cemetery).
The electronic copy of this survey was proofread against the notes and was
then compared against the July 1989 burial records on Nov 02, 2004.
This data comparison revealed that all of the graves listed in the 1989
burial records were marked with grave stones. Hovde Cemetery was revisited
to check the grave stone inscriptions against any discrepancies that were
found between the earlier transcriptions and the 1989 burial records.
Whenever a conflict was found between the data obtained from the grave stone
inscriptions and the 1989 burial records, the data from the inscriptions was
given preference.

1) 2004 Hovde Cemetery Survey Notes by Brian Hass. This is a collection of
hand-printed survey data and notes collected during visits to Hovde Cemetery
in 2004. The data includes names, dates and places of birth, marriage, and
death, and, other data obtained from grave marker inscriptions. Special
care was taken to insure that all names were transcribed accurately from the
markers. This document includes corrections.

2) 1989 Hovde Cemetery Burial Records. The records contain the names of all
individuals known to be buried at Hovde Cemetery, and their years of birth
and death. The names of the individuals are grouped according to family
membership. The records were dated July 1989.

3) "Hovde Cemetery," written by members of the G. F. W. C. Study Clubs, July
1989. This article was written for the South Dakota state centennial and
contained historical information on the cemetery.

4) "Hovde Cemetery," page 79 of the Beresford Centennial book,
Beresford_100_Years, published 1983 by the "Beresford Republic" and the
"Lennox Independent." This contains some historical information on the
cemetery.

5) "The Old Cemeteries Around Centerville," pg 180 of the Centerville
Centennial book, Centerville_Dakota_Territory-Sunshine_State,_Our_Home_Town,
published 1983 by Pine Hill Press, Freeman, South Dakota. This contains
some historical information on the cemetery.